Using -mod:my_mod

[Tellos Athenaios]

This is thread necromancy with a purpose:

It would seem that it hadn't yet occured to anybody here that the relative path . (single dot: current directory) and .. (double dot: parent directory) can be used as true filename patterns: chained together we can have multiple builds of the same fully modfoldered mod running off the same RTW.exe without name collisions. I had tested this a good while ago with EB, but the internal thread is of course not accessible to the public. So here goes:

1. Prepare a clean RTW installation capable of supporting modfoldered mods.
2. Note the path of the RTW w/ever .exe file, say "C:\Games\Vanilla\RTW\".
3. Prepare a modfoldered mod installation somewhere outside that path, say "C:\Mods\", note its path (in this case "C:\Games\Mods\").
4. Compute the relative path from your .exe under (2) to your modfolder under (3): in this case we end up with "..\..\Mods\[modfolder]" where [modfolder] is the name of your modfolder. (Alternatively use: "../../Mods/[modfolder]", that will work too.) Say: "..\..\Mods\EB".
5. Use (4) as the argument to the -mod switch, example: Target: "C:\Games\Vanilla\RTW\" -mod:..\..\Mods\EB -show_err

This means that you could in theory set up multiple versions of EB 1.2 like this:

Target: "C:\Games\Vanilla\RTW\RTW.exe" -mod:..\..\Mods\EB\release -show_err
Target: "C:\Games\Vanilla\RTW\RTW.exe" -mod:..\..\Mods\EB\remod -show_err
Target: "C:\Games\Vanilla\RTW\RTW.exe" -mod:..\..\Mods\EB\devel -show_err
etc.

Note:

people who run this game off a FAT partition *may* find that this doesn't work as expected, due to the fact that FAT does not support symlinks IIRC.

Note: a similar effect is possible through having a suitable [io] setting for each of any number of configuration files for M2TW, but of course you still must take care of avoiding naming collisions with the configuration files themselves.

For a slightly cryptic prior art reference (the use of symlinks in paths), just a few posts up I saw:

For reference, I here make available the listings of the FATW modfolder elements for basic and advanced repathing, and the content listing of the mod pack. I hope this will help anyone seeking to create a modfolder.

A. Contents for mod_0.pak...

The following is the list used in creating the mod_0.pak file for FATW; this generally contains files the reference to which cannot be repathed. The game will look to this pak and use the file there (without this file it would look to vanilla).

mod_0.pak
mod_0\data\ui\generic\#generic_construction.tga
mod_0\data\ui\generic\#generic_unit_card.tga
mod_0\data\ui\generic\generic_building.tga
mod_0\data\ui\generic\generic_city.tga
mod_0\data\ui\generic\generic_constructed_building.tga
mod_0\data\ui\generic\generic_fort.tga
mod_0\data\ui\generic\generic_preconstructed_building.tga
mod_0\data\ui\generic\generic_unit_card.tga
mod_0\data\ui\generic\generic_unit_info.tga
mod_0\data\ui\generic\placement_message.tga
mod_0\data\ui\pips\pip_garrison.tga
mod_0\data\ui\pips\pip_governors_influence.tga
mod_0\data\terrain\aerial_map\tile_textures\volcano_dormant.tga.dds
mod_0\data\terrain\battlefield\rocky_desert\summer\forest.tga.dds
mod_0\data\terrain\battlefield\rocky_desert\summer\oz_rockydesert_summer_pebbles.tga.dds
mod_0\data\terrain\battlefield\rocky_desert\summer\oz_rockydesert_summer_rock.tga.dds
mod_0\data\terrain\battlefield\rocky_desert\summer\oz_rockydesert_summer_sand.tga.dds
mod_0\data\terrain\battlefield\rocky_desert\summer\oz_rockydesert_summer_shrubbase.tga.dds
mod_0\data\terrain\battlefield\rocky_desert\summer\pebble.tga.dds
mod_0\data\terrain\battlefield\rocky_desert\summer\sand.tga.dds
mod_0\data\terrain\battlefield\rocky_desert\summer\shrub_base.tga.dds
mod_0\data\terrain\battlefield\test_climate\summer\grass1.tga.dds
mod_0\data\terrain\battlefield\test_climate\summer\grass.tga.dds
mod_0\data\terrain\battlefield\test_climate\summer\oz_medi_forest.tga.dds
mod_0\data\terrain\battlefield\test_climate\summer\oz_medi_grass1.tga.dds
mod_0\data\terrain\battlefield\test_climate\summer\oz_medi_grass.tga.dds
mod_0\data\terrain\battlefield\test_climate\summer\oz_medi_shrub_base.tga.dds
mod_0\data\loading_screen\loading_bar.tga
mod_0\data\ui\roman\cities\roman_city.tga
mod_0\data\ui\roman\cities\roman_huge_city.tga
mod_0\data\ui\roman\cities\roman_large_city.tga
mod_0\data\ui\roman\cities\roman_town.tga
mod_0\data\ui\roman\cities\roman_large_town.tga
mod_0\data\ui\barbarian\cities\barbarian_city.tga
mod_0\data\ui\barbarian\cities\barbarian_huge_city.tga
mod_0\data\ui\barbarian\cities\barbarian_large_city.tga
mod_0\data\ui\barbarian\cities\barbarian_large_town.tga
mod_0\data\ui\barbarian\cities\barbarian_town.tga
mod_0\data\ui\barbarian\cities\barbarian_fort.tga
mod_0\data\ui\hun\cities\hun_city.tga
mod_0\data\ui\hun\cities\hun_large_city.tga
mod_0\data\ui\hun\cities\hun_huge_city.tga
mod_0\data\ui\hun\cities\hun_large_town.tga
mod_0\data\ui\hun\cities\hun_town.tga
mod_0\data\ui\hun\cities\hun_fort.tga
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_01-02_11.tga.dds
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_01-02_12.tga.dds
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_01-02_13.tga.dds
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_01-02_14.tga.dds
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_01-02_15.tga.dds
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_03-04_11.tga.dds
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_03-04_12.tga.dds
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_03-04_13.tga.dds
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_03-04_14.tga.dds
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_03-04_15.tga.dds
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_top_11.tga.dds
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_top_12.tga.dds
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_top_13.tga.dds
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_top_14.tga.dds
mod_0\data\sky\clouds\heavy\cloud_top_15.tga.dds


B. Advanced Repathing

../ used to jump up directories to repath back down.



C. Basic repathing

Usually just sticking the mod's folder name in after the bi/ folder...



Note that B is a subset of C, as all redirected directory jumping also of course contain the basic repath.

If you have any questions then post here where Makanyane someone will be pleased to answer them

But note that item (B) is *not* a subset of C, rather the converse holds true.